


If At First

by logorrhea



Category: Derkholm Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Homework, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 10:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21848368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/logorrhea/pseuds/logorrhea
Summary: ...you don't succeed, try and try again.(Elda, Olga and Claudia have a class project and badger Flury for his help.)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	If At First

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morvidra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morvidra/gifts).



> After reading your prompt I was determined to make Flury a main character in this fic. Here's to hoping I succeeded.

Olga Olafsdaughter stood at the top of one of the Wizarding University's many parapets. The wind whipped at her hair, making her look spectacularly hawkish. She glanced here and there before heaving herself up on the edge of the bannister and cupping her mouth with both hands.

"Flury!" she shouted.

No answer.

She turned to the wind elementals that had gathered by her side.

"Did you find him?"

They all shook their cloud-covered heads.

She climbed back down and nearly crashed into Claudia.

"Any luck?" her fellow witch asked.

"Not a peep," Olga answered.

"He's really such a difficult fellow to find," Claudia sighed. "I tried casting some divination but it was all rebuffed."

"Mind if I have a go?" Olga asked.

"Be my guest."

And so Claudia led Olga over to the concert hall that still doubled as Elda's bedroom. There was a nice little scrying basin set up in the corner with a pentagon of candles around it.

"Which book is this from?" Olga asked.

"Policant's _Tychomian Divination_."

"I see." Olga tied her hair into a neat bun before rolling up her sleeves. She raised both hands and summoned the water elementals that were playing at the edge of the basin.

"I summon Flury," she said.

The elementals dove beneath the water's surface while the candles flickered. Olga pursed her lips and the two of them waited with baited breath. Claudia's hair curled about her shoulders in anticipation. A moment passed and the elementals breached the surface again. Like their siblings in the air, they shook their heads. No luck.

Olga sighed and lowered her hands.

"Nothing," she said.

The two of them turned to the third member of their project group. The concert hall was filled with the careful turning of pages that had a decidedly frantic slant. Talons were limiting in this regard.

Finally, Elda looked up from the _Scarlet Indices of Javal_ , flicking her tail with irritation.

"What?" she asked.

"We've looked high and low," Olga said, "And there's no sign of him."

"Good riddance," Elda sniffed, taking the opportunity to trade books, "We're much better off without his guidance."

Olga crossed her arms and turned to Claudia for help. Claudia gave a small sigh, thinking back to when Titus would ask her for help wrangling the snakes in the Senate. She carefully made her way through the pile of volumes, standing at arm's length from Elda.

"You know he didn't mean to make you feel bad," she said.

"That's just the way men are," Olga cheerfully supplied.

"There's always some sort of gap," Claudia persevered. "I mean, Titus still thinks I could do better than Blade!"

This was enough to snap Elda out of _Lockheed's Seventh Incantation_. She swiveled towards Claudia with her crest raised.

"But Blade was chosen by the gods!" she protested.

Claudia shrugged. "You know how Titus is."

Elda ground her beak and flipped her tail a couple more times. "Oh alright," she said at the end, setting _Lockheed_ aside and standing up. She was still a little miffed that Flury had outright said her magic wouldn't rival his by graduation, but that didn't mean his magic wouldn't be of use for their assignment.

Claudia and Olga traded relieved looks.

"But don't be disappointed if he doesn't come!" Elda added.

Her friends traded another set of looks.

"I mean it!" She would have put her hands on her hips if she had either. She settled for lightly batting both of them with her tail.

Soon enough, the three of them were standing in the overhang to the west of the quad. It was pouring buckets, but at least it was rain and not snow. Claudia was curled up with a mug of tea while Olga had opted for coffee.

"Think he'll come?" Olga asked, as Elda stood on her haunches and called forth her inner flame.

"I would be surprised if he didn't," was Claudia's diplomatic response.

Sure enough, Flurian Atreck manifested as soon as Elda called. This time he came streaming down in the rain droplets, appearing as a puddle of toffee that coalesced into his proper shape.

"Elda! What's the matter?" Flury immediately said.

Olga and Claudia hid the same smile behind their cups.

"Oh, um, well, you see," Elda stammered, still in shock that Flury had come. Her little magefire was dangling upside-down from her right talon.

Olga gestured frantically at the pile of papers while Claudia started making her way over to the griffin pair.

"Yes?" Flury said, waiting still.

"Well, the thing is," Elda started anew, "We've been tasked with looking at the dispersion of magic."

"So we thought of comparing the magic here to the magic on the continent," Olga — who had since finished her coffee — added.

"A comparative approach?" Flury swished his tail. "That's always interesting."

"For example," Claudia interjected, for she could sense a storm brewing in Elda's gaze, "One article says the beasts on the continent get their magic directly from the earth. Another argues that they are the product of magic. And then there are other scholars that think continental magic came from somewhere else entirely."

"Ah yes." Flury nodded. "That school of thought."

"Where?"

"Space."

"Then it's true?!" Elda shrieked.

"Hardly. I mean, we've been up there."

"But there are elementals on the Red Planet," Olga protested.

"It's not the same thing," Flury stressed. "Think of it as cause and effect." And then, where Wehrmacht would have underscored the point in red ink (and maybe some exclamation marks too), he simply waited for all three of them to arrive at the same conclusion.

"Oh!" Elda said first.

"They were brought there? From here?" Olga hazarded.

"But by whom?" Claudia asked.

"Where did those elementals that tagged along for the ride back end up settling?" Flury asked.

Olga blinked, thinking back to two years prior. "The... marshes?" she tried.

Flury nodded.

"But that must have been hundreds of years ago!" Claudia protested. "Why isn't it written anywhere?"

"The tours," Elda immediately answered, flicking her tail with enthusiasm.

"I imagine there are some allusions to it in Deveyov's _Meditations_ ," Flury helpfully put forth.

The three witches traded glances. Even though they had already laid out a fair amount of groundwork for their initial idea, it was obvious what needed to be done.

"Flury!" Elda exclaimed, butting the other griffin with her head.

"What! What is it?!" Flury reared back on his haunches in surprise, spreading his wings wide.

"You are absolutely insufferable!" she declared. "But I promise — even if it takes me twenty, no, two hundred, years, I _will_ know magic better than you some day!" With that declaration, she turned tail and sprinted towards the library, uncaring of the pouring rain.

"Thanks a bunch, Flury," Olga added.

"Yes," Claudia smiled, "I'm sure Elda is just as thankful."

Flury folded his ears down, the picture of bashfulness. "I'm just happy to be of help," he said. "Now run along and don't spend the night at the library! Tell the librarian I recommended those books to you if they ask!"

Olga and Claudia didn't need to be told twice. They hurried after Elda up the steps of the library. Claudia used an umbrella made of hydrophobic marshweed while Olga simply told the elementals to leave her be. Their resulting report on the origin of the elementals on the Red Planet won best project in the university and as Elda stood on the awards stage in the auditorium, she could've swore she saw Flury puff up his chest. It must have been a trick of light.


End file.
